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We compute the one-loop photon contribution to the graviton self-energy on a de Sitter background and use it to solve the linearized Einstein equation for a point mass. Our results show that a comoving observer sees a logarithmic spatial running Newton's constant. Equivalently, a static observer reports a secular suppression of the Newtonian potential., Comment: Version 3 corrects an error pointed out to us by Frob and Verdaguer in our treatment of the local contribution. We gratefully acknowledge their assistance

We use a recent result for the graviton contribution to the one loop vacuum polarization to solve the effective field equations for dynamical photons on de Sitter background. Our results show that the electric field experiences a secular enhancement proportional to the number of inflationary e-foldings. We discuss the minimum this establishes for primordial inflation to seed cosmic magnetic fields., Comment: Version 2 revised for publication in Physical Review D contains substantial discussion of the eventual breakdown of perturbation implied by our result

The thermoelectric properties of Sr0.61Ba0.39Nb2O6 ceramics, reduced in different conditions, were investigated in the temperature region from 323 K to 1073 K. The electrical transport behaviors of the samples are dominated by the thermal-activated polaron hopping, the Fermi glass behavior, and the Anderson localized behavior from low temperatures to high temperatures, respectively. The lattice thermal conductivity presents a plateau at high temperatures, indicating a glass-like thermal conduction behavior. Both the thermoelectric power factor and the thermal conductivity increase with the increasing degree of oxygen-reduction. Taking these two factors into account, the oxygen-reduction can still contribute to promoting the thermoelectric figure of merit. The highest ZT value (~0.19 at 1073 K) is obtained in the heaviest oxygen reduced sample., Comment: 17 pages, 9 figures

The paper is Part III of our ongoing project to study a case of Crepant Transformation Conjecture: K-equivalence Conjecture for ordinary flops. In this paper we prove the invariance of quantum rings for general ordinary flops, whose local models are certain non-split toric bundles over arbitrary smooth base. An essential ingredient in the proof is a quantum splitting principle, which reduces a statement in Gromov--Witten theory on non-split bundles to the case of split bundles.

Y-Ba-Cu-O (YBCO) and Sm-Ba-Cu-O (SmBCO) thin films have been used for the first time as heterogeneous seeds to multi-seed successfully the melt growth of bulk YBCO in a multi-seeded melt growth (MSMG) process. The use of thin film seeds, which may be prepared with highly controlled orientation (i.e. with a well-defined a-b plane and precisely known a-direction), is based on their superheating properties and reduces significantly contamination of the bulk sample by the seed material. A variety of grain boundaries were obtained by varying the angle between the seeds. Microstructural studies indicate that the extent of residual melt deposited at the grain boundary decreases with increasing grain boundary contact angle. It is established that the growth front proceeds continuously at the (110)/(110) grain boundary without trapping liquid, which leads to the formation of a clean grain boundary.

X-ray tomography is performed to acquire 3D images of crumpled aluminum foils. We develop an algorithm to trace out the labyrinthian paths in the three perpendicular cross sections of the data matrices. The tangent-tangent correlation function along each path is found to decay exponentially with an effective persistence length that shortens as the crumpled ball becomes more compact. In the mean time, we observed ordered domains near the crust, similar to the lamellae phase mixed by the amorphous portion in lyotropic liquid crystals. The size and density of these domains grow with further compaction, and their orientation favors either perpendicular or parallel to the radial direction. Ordering is also identified near the core with an arbitrary orientation, exemplary of the spontaneous symmetry breaking.

A three-dimensional X-ray tomography is performed to investigate the internal structure and its evolution of a crumpled aluminum foil. The upper and lower bounds of the internal geometric fractal dimension are determined, which increase with the compression. Contrary to the simulation results, we find that the mass distribution changes from being inhomogeneous to uniform. Corroborated with the evidence from previous experiments, these findings support the physical picture that the elastic property precedes the plastic one at dominating the deformation and mechanical response for all crumpled structures. We show that the interior of a crumpled ball at the plastic regime can be mapped to the compact packing of a granular system.

We show that the generating functions of Gromov--Witten invariants with ancestors are invariant under a simple flop, for all genera, after an analytic continuation in the extended K\"ahler moduli space. This is a sequel to [LLW].

The full potential linearized augmented plane wave (FLAPW) method was used to study the crystal structure and electronic structure properties of PbFe0.5Nb0.5O3 (PFN). The optimized crystal structure, density of states, band structure and electron density distribution have been obtained to understand the ferroelectric behavior of PFN. From the density of states analysis, it is shown that there is a hybridization of Fe d - O p and Nb d - O p in ferroelectric PFN. This is consistent with the calculation of electronic band structure. This hybridization is responsible for the tendency to its ferroelectricity., Comment: 10 pages